No more than two seconds after the scoreboard time flashed all zeroes, my cell phone lit up with a text from a BYU fan.

 “Boring game!”

  Bronco Mendenhall couldn’t have stated it better. And he couldn’t have been any happier.

 Compared to the combined score of 103-0 in the wins over UCLA and Wyoming, along with the thriller against Washington, BYU’s 21-3 victory over New Mexico did seem devoid of excitement.

 So friggin’ what?

 As quarterback Max Hall and receiver Austin Collie both said to me in individual interviews: “You can’t win every game 59-0” in reference to the UCLA game. It was as almost as if they huddled together and rehearsed the same line before coming out of the locker room.

 I doubt they did that. But I also know they never were more accurate in the hundreds of interviews the two stars have conducted over the years.

 “Not every game is going to be perfect,” said Collie.

 Amen.

 Obviously, the Cougars didn’t open a can on New Mexico. They needed darned near every one of the 60 minutes to improve to 6-0 and 2-0 in the Mountain West.

 Get used to it, my friends.

 From now on, expect all six of the remaining Mountain West games to be dogfights. For each one of them, beating BYU would make their season.

 Consider:

-         BYU is the two-time defending conference champion.

-         BYU has won 18 consecutive Mountain West games.

-         BYU is ranked in the Top 10.

-         BYU is the Mountain West’s most prestigious program.

-         And, never forget, BYU is BYU (your own interpretation determines what this last line means).

The Cougars took New Mexico’s best shot and still strolled out of LaVell Edwards Stadium with everything intact. By that, I mean the conference championship race, the national ranking and potential BCS game.

 Consider Saturday a success in every way.

 “This game is indicative of what’s to come,” said Mendenhall.

 My only serious knock on BYU is the poor output offensively in the first quarter. For reasons I didn’t understand until after the game, offensive coordinator Robert Anae was wrong to ignore Harvey Unga in the first 15 minutes.

 The sophomore running back touched the ball only once in the first quarter, on a 9-yard reception. Turns out, the Lobos threw Anae a curverball.

 “New Mexico was very difficult to figure out,” Mendenhall said.

 Rocky Long’s initial defensive scheme was designed to stop the pass. Expecting the Lobos to load up on the run, BYU came out firing through the air. The result was two C.J. Santiago punts on the first two possessions.

 In the second quarter, Anae unleashed Unga, who got six carries during BYU’s 10-play, 95-yard touchdown drive. Nursing a 7-3 lead in the third quarter, BYU went 69 yards in six plays – half of which were Unga runs – and went ahead 14-3.

 Each time New Mexico got any life, BYU’s defense snuffed it out. The Cougars, who won the turnover battle 2-0, sacked quarterback Tate Smith three times - two by linebacker Coleby Clawson and one by nose guard Ian Dulan.

 Linebacker David Nixon also made a huge play in the third quarter, tackling running back Rodney Ferguson for a 3-yard loss on a third-and-1.

 For all of BYU’s great play, Long didn’t want to hear any of it. Long was furious over an illegal block call that negated what would have been a 14-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

 On a third-and-12 from BYU’s 14-yard line, offensive tackle Byron Bell was called for a block in the back. From my vantage point in the press box, the call was highly questionable.

 Long would argue vehemently with me.

 “I don’t know if we would have won, but the officials blew a call that changed the entire momentum of the game,” he said. “It’s criminal that they changed the momentum of the game like that. It’s ridiculous that one call can change all the momentum of the game and take away from our team.”

 Of course, BYU could have said the same thing on an offensive pass interference penalty on Collie in the second quarter.

 In 59-0 games, nobody beefs about the officials. The complaints only come in close games.

 Get used it, this is the way it’s going to be from here-on out. Boring never looked so exciting.